Atlantic: great sea battles, heroic discoveries, titanic storms, and a vast ocean of a million stories

Part history, part biography – it’s a story that is over 310 million cubic kilometres of water in the making. Simon Winchester uses his personal experiences with the Atlantic and springboards into the history of this body of water and the people that have ventured across it. He nostalgically recalls his first journey across the Atlantic on a Canadian Pacific Liner which leads into stories of the first Europeans setting foot in North America (and no, it wasn’t Christopher Columbus). This book is about more than exploration. It delves into the depths of how it has been polluted over the years, as well as the fishing fleets and markets. For example, did you know that no one would buy a “toothfish” but when the name was changed to “Chilean sea bass,” people can’t get enough of them? I particularly enjoyed the audiobook version, which is read by the author himself. (submitted by BH)